Originally Posted by
magracer
Can you name a few?
This is my take on Hugo's positive things at the helm of Venezuela.
- He threw off most PDVSA's (the national petroleum company) employees off after they insisted on protesting his government, in effect, voiding them of their right to protest.
- He placed his military pals and family in almost every public post (not necesarily bad, but see next items).
- He closed free trade of currency. A governemt agency called CADIVI which is run by the ex-military, manages all outflows and inflows of currency. They take bribes to make the flows flow, otherwise you'll never get money out of there. It was about 30%, when I cared about it. I know this for a fact.
- He took direct control of PDVSA, making it the governments piggy bank, he also took control of all negotiations through someone in his familiy.
- He also took control of all arms negotiations through another person in his familiy.
- He nationalized a bunch of companies which abviously is a scheme to get cash to his buddies. Everybody knows governments are not efficient running companies, except him.
- He has spoken without any respect to almost every President and Government in America and to the King of Spain. From the top of my memory he has messed with Colombia, Mexico, Brasil, Bolivia and of course USA. He called Bush the devil in a UN intervention! Ok, Bush is not the brightest, but come on, to call him that and there, jeez!
- He put in place a 36 hour work week, in effect turning Venezuela into a totally uncompetitive country (except for petroleum). When they run out of it, or the price goes down (I know, both not very probable scenarios right now) they will have nothing.
- There are ques now just like in Cuba, just to access basic food at discount prices.
Here's what I think is incredible. In the previous petroleum boom, Venezuela was robbed by the politicians of all it's riches, now just 20 years later, they are letting this guy do it all over again. I just don't get it.
So no, all people in south america do not approve of his actions, or his thoughts, or his methods.
About the thread... I think NO won by a landslide and he used his machinery to put it almost even just to "balance" the score and show he has support, being afraid that the recount the opposition would surely ask for would, put him in evidence.
Summary for the time poor: I hate the guy! In fact, I call him the south american Hitler.